The present invention relates to an agricultural pickup and, more particularly, to a pickup tine guard with an improved mounting.
Pickups used on agricultural harvesting machines such as, for example, balers and forage harvesters typically include a reel that is rotatable about a horizontal axis. The reel has a plurality of tines mounted on bars for movement in a generally circular path to lift crop material from the ground and feed it rearwardly into a crop processing mechanism. The tine bars are connected to a central shaft by end plates, and as the reel rotates, the tines project through spaces or gaps formed between tine guards arranged side-by-side transversely of the reel. These tine guards are individually secured by bolts at their top and bottom ends to support members on the pickup. U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,527 granted on Aug. 20, 1968 to O. W. Luek et al. discloses a conventional mounting arrangement for the tine guards wherein each guard is secured by four bolts or rivets at its top and bottom ends.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,171 granted on Oct. 1, 1991 to Gary L. Bich et al. discloses a tine mounting arrangement that comprises upper and lower mounting plates that are removably attached to upper and lower frame members, respectively, on the pickup. The pickup includes a reel having a plurality of tines that project, as the reel rotates, through spaces or gaps formed between the tine guards. The upper ends of the tine guards are secured to the upper mounting plate while the lower ends of the tine guards are secured to the lower mounting plate so that the tine guards are removed together with the mounting plates when the mounting plates are detached from the pickup frame members.
At some point in time every pickup requires service, whether it is due to normal wear and tear or because of damage, and such service necessitates the removal of one or more tine guards in order to gain access to the reel. This type of service is quite time consuming, and thus costly, because, in most such situations quite a few tine guards must be removed to provide enough space to perform additional service work. Particularly in situations where the tine guards themselves are damaged or that damage extends across the front of the pickup, the amount of time and effort that must be expended to disassemble the components to provide adequate access to effect repair is such that the costs are excessive.
Additionally, pickups of the nature described herein are placed under considerable stress during operation due to encounters with crop materials, stones, pieces of wood and the like. Such stresses are in generally exhibited as side and other bending forces that often damage the tine guards.
It would be a great advantage to provide a tine guard mounting arrangement that overcomes the above problems and disadvantages.